All Over :(

The musical finished up this weekend. I am really sad now because I have grown so close with the people in the cast. I used to see them every day after school for at least a couple hours and now I barely ever see them. They are such great people and we all have been there for each other through the whole musical process. Every one of them are amazing people and I do not think we have had any drama or conflict between any of us. Of course we get annoyd but we still love be hang out with each other. I will be super sad when the seniors actually leave. I wont be in any more productions with them since they are going off to bigger and better things next year.

This past week was really hectic. My family has to move out of the house this week and I was busy trying to get school work done and go to every minute of musical. We had our performance this past weekend and they all went really well. I felt proud of every one of them. I now have a virus, probably just from everything going on. I started to have a sore throat on the Saturday performances. I went to the doctors and found out that I somehow have swimmers ears and an inflamed throat. I feel so drained from the musical and packing and trying to still have fun and enjoy the friends I have from musical all at the same time. It has been worth it though. I think that every one in the cast did an amazing job and really prooved they deserved their role. I am going to miss performing the musical because it is so much fun. My mom got a DVD of the performance so at least I can relive the experience. So many people were so nice for coming. Some people even came more than one night and really showed all of us in the cast how much they appreciated our performance. Even though it was a lot of hard work I am going to miss going to practice every day and hanging out with the people I got to know on a deeper level. Hopefully lots of us will be in the same activities next year so we can keep our amazing relationships going. I think we all need to have a musical get together and stay in touch over the summer.

Slumdog Millionaire

After hearing about how great this movie was and how many awards it got, I could not wait to watch it. I finally watched the movie in the car and the way back from Colorado. The little talking that happened in the beginning of the movie was in subtitles. I did not really know what the movie was about since I had not realy seen any previews for it or heard people talk about what actually happens in the movie.

The movie was so different from many other movies in our culture. People could kind of relate to the who wants to be a millionaire part because we have that in our country. It starts off as him getting beat up to answer how he cheated. Then it starts to show you flash backs of why they are asking him this question and beating him up. As you see them go through the tape, he explains how he knows each answer to the questions asked. They were life experiences for him. It starts off when he was young and goes through the life he lived as he grew up in the slums. People who lived in the slums were called slumdogs. When he shows the answer to each question you learn how he lived his life, and how these different experiences have gotten him to where he is. He had a hard childhood, by losing a home and his own mother. Him and his brother stuck together even though he bossed him around. He was kind of a bully and ends up being on the bad guy side to get ahead, which he does.

The younger brother had a girl that they became close with until a man caught her and started using her to dance and get money. The brother has always looked for her because he loves her and can never forget about her. The older brother is working for the man that caught her though and wants to keep his job and the good life he has. He goes against his younger brother though. The entire movie is so incredible and it was like nothing I have ever seen before. It was a long movie but every moment had something new and added to a different part in the story. There is a soundtrack out to the the movie. The songs are so good. I have been listening to them all the time lately. This movie was amazing and I can see why it recieved so many awards.

Only the beginning...

The musical performance days have started! Yesterday we got all day of school off to perform the previews for school and do our first complete performance for some senior citizens. The previews went completely better than I had expected. You kind of think that the kids in highschool might be a tough audience but most of them enjoyed the little preview performance and were laughing and getting all the funny parts.

The previews each lasted for thirty minutes (give or take) and we all got to say our intros but then only four people got to sing their song. There just wasn't that much time and we didn't want to give away the whole show. I really think that this year so many people will want to come to watch this musical because they know they actually will enjoy it. And it wont just be to go see their friend(s).

After the previews the chorus got to leave but the principals had to stay to review parts in the show that were recently changed and needed work on to remember correctly. We really did not want to be there because we wanted as much time as we could to mess around and go to lunch, but we all knew that we needed that review. Most of the principals ended up going to Panera for lunch...which was very delicious. We got back at noon and got ready for the senior citizen show. They started coming in an hour and a half early. They were really early so we moved our start time to twenty minutes earlier. The show went really well I thought. The parts we did review...we messed up on, but it was not terrible and it gives us something to improve. It seemed a little weird to say/do some of the things in the show for older people because they might not take to it as easily. There were parts though that younger people would not get that they laughed at right away. It was completely a different show and all of them were so accepting and pleased when we met them after the show.

Then all the principals got time off before five to go do what we pleased. Most of us took a delightful trip to fruitzen. I was upset though because I left my card at home that day :( After that, all of the group pretty much went to target to get gifts for their "secret" buddy. Mostly everyone got cheap little random gifts. Later when we were in practice we had a little session where you guessed who had you and then that person would say some good things about you, the the circle would say things about you too if they wanted. It turned in to a twenty minute things for each person. We only have a two hour practice scheduled so we went way over and eventually I just had to leave.

The show has been going great and I cannot wait until tonight to really make it even better. I have gained so many friends through this entire process and I am soo happy that I decided to try out for the musical this year. Four more performances to go!!!

delicious fruitzen = warm weather!

Fruitzen is like the place to go. When you are craving some delicious heaven in your mouth, you know where to go. I love how many flavors they have and I always try to get something new but it is hard to branch off from the one that you really like. I have found one and I try some other ones but they are not as good as the kind I like.

My first experience with snow cones was a bad one. It tasted really watery because there was barely any flavor with the ice. I would rather have too much or nothing than just a little bit of flavor. So I was a little hesitant when I went to fruitzen for the first time. I could not really understand why everyone loved it so much....Now I know.

Recently I have been there a lot to enjoy the tasty treats that they offer. I usually stick to my one flavor. I just like going with a bunch of people to eat a bite of what they have to see if I will like it or not. Usually I find that most people like mine a lot but I do not really like theirs as much.

They have these punch cards that they punch out a spot for every snow cone you buy there. When you have ten total you can use the card to get a free snow cone. Apparently some people have been abusing these cards, by saving them up until the fall and then using all of them then. This does not allow for as much revenue to come in at that time. I do not really understand though, because those punch cards are like motivation for some people and either way they are still paying for their snow cones. Maybe they should just have like deadlines on the cards as how long you have to use them. That might solve some of the problem and then people can use them still. Apparently though they are going to try to have customer appreciation days though where snow cones might be two for one for the day. That sounds like it would make up for the loss of cards, accept that it might be terribly busy that day.

Either way I love going to fruitzen. It is always a memorable experience when I go with friends. I do not think I have ever had a bad time going there. It usually makes my day.

I want it!

Ever since one of my friends made a song on their mac I have been convinced that I want one. We used to use them all the time in elementary school but with less advanced systems. My mother thinks that I wont be able to switch over from using windows to using the systems on the mac. I am really good at figuring new technology out though and I also have some people that could help if I did need help. I really love the options that the mac has. There are different tools but they pretty much work the same as the tools on Windows do. I also like that on the macbook, you can use the tool garage band. There is a camera built in to the book. Also you can record music through the macbook. I love music and having the option to create my own music would be so neat and fun. I love to make things up and just mess around. This is one of the major reasons why I really want a macbook. I feel like I love the style an design of their technology too.

I have been trying to talk about mac computers with my friends who know about them or have and use them. The friends that do not have the mac really seem to want one. They think it seems really cool to have a built in camera and sound system in there. They are also all musical people who probably enjoy that feature the most. Working with garage band seems to be the fun thing to do in our music group. There are so many fun tools and items to use on these computers. I would love to have a macbook to use instead of the one I have now. The only thing is that they are expensive. I think it would be worth it though if I could get one. I really am starting to love to experiment with music, and I really wish that I could get a macbook because I think it has the feature to make it easier along with just using it as a normal fast working computer.

I hope to have time to get a job soon so I can start saving up money to get a computer. Maybe I could ask for some help from my parents for Christmas too. It would be so nice to get one. I would still be happy keep the computer I have now, but I feel like getting a mac would be new, sleek, and very convenient to use new tools.

Vocal Tryouts

The other day we had vocal tryouts for choirs next year. The day of class was pretty much a free day except that you could tryout for the choirs if you wanted to during some point of the period. When the time came I really had no idea what I was going to sing. I was not really worried about finding a song. I went out in the line in the hallway waiting to tryout without even knowing what song I was going to sing. When I got in line I started to think of what I could sing. A lot of people were doing their songs from their voice lessons or from just a solo, but I did not really want to sing any of those songs. I kept thinking and asking people for what I should sing, but I do not really think anyone cared because they were busy worrying about their own audition, which I can completely understand.

I asked one of my senior friends earlier what I should sing and she told me I should sing a Sara Barielles or Brooke Fraser song. Since I could not really find any other song that I really felt like singing I started to think of different songs from those two people that I could quickly figure out since I listen to them all the time. I could not think of how the songs went though. Its only the time when you really need to remember that you suddenly have a brain fart. This is what happened to me. So quickly I went back into the classroom and asked if anyone had an ipod. One person said asked what I wanted to listen to and looked it up on their phone quick. I listened to the song and just decided to sing it. The song was Shadowfeet by Brooke Fraser. I went back in line and sang the song when it was my turn to audition. I thought it went really well and I made a good decision to sing that song because it made me feel satisfied with my performance.

I love just singing any song by Sara Barielles or Brooke Fraser. Their music is so intriguing to me and I would have to say they are high on the list of artists that I look up to. Anyone who likes one of these artists will most likely find the other enjoyable.

...whoa

I just realized today that next week is show week. I am going to be soo swamped and have to make up school over top of the school that I am already trying to make up. It is exciting to think that everything we have been working on is going to pay off next week. Pretty much the entire week is going to be filled with the musical.

I have made up most of my test that I think I needed to make up. But I am sure that there are plenty that I have missed and did not know that I had. So I will be scrambling just to make up those tests. Somehow I will have to make them up around the busy musical next week. I might just wait until the week after the musical then I can stay after school and use my sixth hour to make everything up. But right now doing this is kind of hard with having musical everyday after school until at least six if not longer. Then the sixth hour I do have off every other day I am currently practicing my solo ensemble pieces with the piano player from our school.

There is just soo much to get done and it is starting to get overwhelming, but I am so excited at the same time for the musical that it kind of balances the worry I have over the make-up work for school and trying to pack in time for moving out. I kind of like packing sometimes anyway though because I run into things that I forgot I had or that bring up old memories. It also feels good to clean out a lot of things from my entire random collection of stuff. I feel like I am always trying to save things just in case I will need them in the future, but the reality is that it takes up so much room and I probably will never remember I even have it. I really cannot wait to get into my moms new house. I am going to get to just make everything new and a change from what it has been.

Soon the musical will come up and be over with. Then I will probably feel bored and wont know what to do so I am just going to live in the moment of excitement and fury.

Chorus Line Camp :)

This past weekend we had our five hour rehearsal scheduled with our choreographer who got back in town. We all got there and it always feels kind of weird when you practice on a weekend or not a school day. We had the chorus there for the first couple hours, which flew by very fast. I have never worked on something and had time fly that quickly. Then the chorus got to leave and we worked on principal work and pretty much just went through the show. Our director used this time to start pulling each of us out to work individually on our parts. After about another hour we were all done with the principal work and were ready to go. We all wanted to leave but not even half of us had done our work with our director. Soon we had the idea to just do it next week during night rehearsals instead of waiting till our time then. We were so happy when he let us do that because we thought he might not like the idea very much. I was so happy to leave because fruitzen was open that day. Pretty much all of us left and got snow cones... which were amazing. It was the best rehearsal I have ever been to. Probably because it was scheduled to go until six and we pretty much got out of there a little more than two hours early. And then on top of that fruitzen was open, which everyone loves to go to so we were all in a wonderful mood. It is amazing how much you bond with the musical people. I have been around them every day for pretty much 4 hours at least. And I am not quite fed up with them, but I am sure that time has yet to come.

The tech crew came in the other day and did all the lighting. It is soo cool and really makes the show. Now I feel like it does not feel right when the lighting is not on. This week orchestra is joining us and will make for another challenge but it should be really good and start to really feel like a legit show. This rehearsal tonight shall be another frustrating one. I hope these next two weeks everything will really come together and start to be a really amazing show. I want it to be soo good because I know we have the potential for it to be that way.

Packing

My family only has a little over a week left (nine days actually) to pack up everything and get it out of our house so the people who bought it can move in. It is a lot of work, especially when you have to put things in boxes that do not really fit together.

So far all I have attempted are books and papers, which do not really frustrate me that much so I can pretty much just throw them in a box and they will fit pretty nicely. I have musical every week day though from now till next Saturday. That is exactly all the time we have until we have to be out of the house, so I really do not know when I am going to be able to pack up a lot of my stuff. I will maybe have to hardcore pack this weekend, but knowing me I will get off subject and want to go do something else.

My dad and little brother have been furiously packing though. There are so many boxes in the front room of our house. I feel like they have only made a dent in what we have to pack though, but at least it is going somewhere. My mom is out of town this week because she is visiting her sister/my aunt for the week and babysitting her kids while they are on their spring break. If she were here she would be freaking out and worrying about packing all the time because that is just the way she is. I am glad my brother and dad packed this weekend because it will make my mom feel a lot better. Hopefully I can get a bigger dent in my room soon, or else she will turn her worrying to me and start to bother me about it. Then if I do not get to it she will just start doing whatever kind of packing she wants in my room. I think the best would be for me to pack my things so I know where they all are and I wont be confused later. That way I can also clean and get rid of things in the same process and then we do not have to take that stuff with us.

Well hopefully we get the house all packed up in time, and I can find some time really soon to get the packing done that I need to get done. It is starting to be more of a reality that we are actually moving now, since things are starting to empty out and the pile of boxes in the front room are growing.

Ze musicale

Our musical this year is A Chorus Line! I personally had never heard of it before. But now I am really getting to know it up close and personal. We have been practicing pretty much every day after school. Especially the principals... I made the part of Diana Morales.

Rehearsals are starting to become pretty intense. The week after we found out the results we had a week long dance session pretty much. All the dances were learned for the musical in this week since our choreographer was in town from New York. She came in and taught the opening number and the closing with all of the chorus. Then with just the principals she taught the numbers inbetween and the individual parts of choreography. We have been working on our parts pretty intensely especially the numbers with all the chorus in them. Working on those have started to get a little boring since we have done them sooo many times.

My favorite time is when there are just principals there. The dance numbers are not as heavy and it is a little easier to stay interested though I do like to mess around and have fun. I can be focused but I hate being focused when someone tells me to be. I can work just as hard when I am having fun. I think when it all starts coming together it will be more exciting to perform our parts. This musical is going to be so fun to do though. I really can not wait until performance week when my life will be surrounded by this musical. It will be hard to keep up with school work but it is going to be so much fun just hanging with the cast all day.

The last two weeks are going to be pure madness. We have practices from 3-6 and then 6:30-9. The parents are going to bring us dinner every night in the thirty minutes we have. We are not allowed to even leave the school during that time. Somehow I am going to have to get my homework done during those nights. Hopefully I can make it through and not really have terrible grades at the end. I already am still trying to make-up work from missing days around spring break. I really hope I wont have another bad term like I did winter term. Overall though this musical should be worth all the hard work. I think it is a great cast with lots of talent and it should be an amazing show.

Houses

Our house has been sold! It is weird to actually have our house sold. We have been trying for a year now but it has taken forever. It has not even been a week yet and both of my parents have found houses to get (they got divorced).

On Friday my dad had to leave with my little brother to go to a soccer tournament. Before he left though he found a house that was newly listed in his price range on the market and put an offer down on it. He put down some payment deal to said that he is actually considering buying the house and he wont back out. Then this weekend while both of them were gone my mom and I looked at some houses for her. She went through 17 house just on Saturday alone. Then me and her looked for house on Sunday morning. She ended up looking through a total of 22 houses all together. But today when we were looking through houses we went through the house that my dad put a payment on. For some reason the lady still had an open house, which me and mom my thought sounded suspicious. The lady is selling the house herself through iowahomesforsale. When we went in the house she was showing other people around it like no one had even put an offer down on it and it was still up for sale. Apparently my mom told me she went back through and asked the lady if there had been any offers on it and she said that she had had three offers on the house and was waiting till Monday to accept one. Doesn't that sound a little sleazy and like she is cheating these people. My dad clearly thought that his offer was accepted and he had a house. My little brother even started planning out where his room was going to be and where the t.v. was going to go. This lady obviously is cheating these people out and in the end it probably will benefit her, but it still does not make it right. If my dad was home this weekend he could have been looking at other houses if he knew that this lady did not want his offer. It just seems cheap and completely unprofessional. I really hope he ends up getting the house and is not just played by this rude lady.

But some good news is that my mom found a house this morning and the offer was accepted through an actual reality company so it seems more legit and real than my dads acceptance. The only thing is that the house is like a couple streets away from where my dad wants to live. So it would be kind of weird living that close even though they are divorced. Oh well, I guess I will have to see how it goes.

Marriott

The Monday after we got back from break we had a performance right away at the Marriott Hotel for some business people. It was supposed to be a banquet I think to reward their "good/hardworking" employees. We had to be there a little bit after school so we could get ready and set up for the performance.

Most of the guys went into the big banquet room and helped set up the risers while the girls did their hair in the other room we were all getting ready in. All of a sudden I hear that one of our guys has cut their finger pretty badly. My mom was helping him out because she teaches a first aid and cpr class for the venture crew that I am in. Apparently he sliced his finger on the riser and it was cut really deep. It was bandaged up and no one really sent him to get stitches even though he needed them. I think he was just trying to make it through the performance first.

It is time for us to perform and we go out on stage and stand in our positions. A reverend says a funny little prayer and sits down in front. Now everyone is going through the buffet line at the back of the room while we are starting to perform so it is a little weird. And then everyone else is eating at the round tables in front of us. We start our show and it is going pretty good other than the awkwardness. As we get to our ballad we start off and we all seem really out of breath. Who knows if it was the room that was hard to breath in or none of us just did not really have as much adreneline as we usually do but you could tell it was a little rough. During the beginning, which is a really quiet time, the reverends phones goes off. He takes it out of his pocket and just looks to see whos calling...not even silencing it. After a couple seconds the reverend, who is in the front and center table by the way, opens up his phone and starts talking. It was sooo distracting and weird. I think he might be suffering from mental issues though, so I have to give him a little bit of a break.
During the middle of the ballad the guys finger has now bled through the bandage and is making a little pool on the stage of blood. He has a little five person solo part in the next song but right after the ballad he has to leave to go get stitches. So now we have an awkward situation to perform at in the first place, with a distracting phone conversation, and a leaking cut finger on stage.

....it was quite a performance.

Dog Sledding :)

Over Spring break I went to Colorado as you might know. There we got to go dog sledding. I was so excited because the time before this when I went to Colorado we went and it was the most memorable time there for me. When I was there this time with a lot of the people that did not really know what dog sledding was like I kept getting really excited over it and I am pretty sure they all thought I was going over board but I did not care. They finally understood when we went why I was acting that way.

We went to the same exact place that we had gone the time before. We arrived there and filled out forms then got all of the gear we needed and put everything on so we were ready to go. Soon our instructors came in and took us outside to the dog teams. Our group was split up into six and four because there are only six people allowed for each group. I was in the group of four and we had two other people from another group join us. We got to our dog teams and the group we came with all took a picture with the lead dogs. Then we soon met the dogs on our team and learned a little bit about them. There are eight dogs on the teams that pulled us. First off on our team was the two boys. The rest of us sat in a two bench sled thing that was being pulled by the snowmobile that the instructor was driving. Each bench sat about two and maybe three if you squeezed. The dogs are taught to follow the snowmobile so our instructor took off, yelled a command, and then the dogs took off.

Dog sledding it not the fastest thing in the world especially when they had been on the same trails day after day so they get bored. The people on the sled were going at a more leisurely pace then one might think. The instructor started to make new trails for the dogs to be interested and pay attention more. This just meant a bumpier ride for those on the sled behind the snow mobile though. It was fun for me but maybe not for the people that did not have things covering their face.

Soon enough it was my turn and I went by myself first with no one sittting in the seat area. He asked me if I wanted to go the easy way or the hard way and I told him the easy for this first time.... sooo he went the hard. Well I have gone dogsledding before but I was no where near an expert. He took me down and path where the corner takes a hard steep right and then quickly a hard steep left. Well luckily I got the first corner down without hitting the trees on my right. But then there was too much slack in the line that attached the dogs to the sled and dumb me forgets how to break at the moment we try to go around the second quick turn to the left. The dog were going so fast and got the turn but the sled did not and whiplashed out to the right taking me in the same direction. I pretty much launched off of the sled and to the snow. It was fun that I fell but I kind of wanted to have a re-do and prove that I could do it. And just my luck too, the other six from our group had just crossed the trail across from us and saw me launch off the sled. One of them even got a picture.

Moving on to another exciting part of the trail ride was when a little boy in our group who was one of the additions rode on the dog sled. He was probably in elementary school or middle school. He was so light and little though, so he got to ride a lot so the dogs could pull him easier and we could cover more ground. Our instructor unexpectedly led us up this crazy little snow ramp thing. It is hard to describe but it didn't feel like we should make it over but somehow we always did. Well the dogs get excited to go up it and the instructor takes us up then we looked back and see the dogs come over and then soon the sled.... but with no little boy. Then we circle around and the dogs follow so the boy quick jumps back on the sled. Again we go over another one of those crazy little ramps and this time we all think the little boy might make it because we can see him on the sled coming up... but then the sled flicks over that quick hill and launches the boy up. It was sooo crazy, he did like a superman in the air. That was the talk of the day for me.

The entire experience was sooo much more amazing the second time than the first. I think it was a little bit more adventurous too. I loved dog sledding and I wish I could do it more often because it is so incredibly fun and enjoyable.

Wild Horse Saloon

The night we found out our results for show choir performance we all got ready and went out to the Wild Horse Saloon. Here we had dinner and learned a line dance with a bunch of the other show choir kids that were there. It seemed like it would be such a great time for all of us. The night was full of food, people, music, and dancing... what more could you ask for? There was a guy that came out and kind of looked like Keith Urban :) Well I was at the front of the stage with others from our group just dancing and having a good time. It was kind of one of those times where I didn't really care what people thought and I was just letting the music and experience take me over. I had this feeling once he started to change to a little older classic songs that he was going to play "my song" (when I sang the solo for Don't Stop Believin'). Everyone usually freaks out when that song comes on. Usually I don't really care to sing along since I feel like everyone does not really hear me anyways since they are singing. It never really felt like "my song" until that night when the guitar started to play the intro. My whole group freaked out and started attention towards me and one of my friends lifted me up in a hug for a second. The singer obviously knew that I had sung it or somehow that song was really important to me since he was watching it right in front of him. For some reason though I just started tearing up with all these emotions. I let it all go and just sang my heart out along to the song with everyone else. I did not care about anything around me, it was just me and that song. Then on the chorus the singer let me singing one of the belting parts.... It probably wasn't that good though because I was still pretty much letting the tears flow but oh well :/ Then I still remember when he was singing another part he looked down at me and winked. I loved it! I loved the entire feeling of that time on the dance floor. It felt like the best night of my life! The feelings I get when I remember that night are great. It really is one of those "priceless" moments that I never will forget.